Retribution Paladins Patch 4.0.1

Patch 4.0 is finally here! The version we are getting is Patch 4.0.1, and Retribution Paladins got their world flipped upside down. Gone is the ease of face rolling DPS, and in comes the era of Holy Power, with it’s cohort of reliant abilities. I am stoked, are you?

This site is going to require some massive updating since many of my guides and posts are relevant to WotLK talents and abilities. The leveling experience will change as well. I will be continuously updating content so that it is current, so keep checking back to keep current on the changes!

Keep in mind some things can’t and won’t change until Cataclysm, so that content is likely to stay the same.

Now, without further adieu, let’s get into the Patch 4.0.1 Retribution Paladin notes! As usual my source is MMO Champion, and some of this, plus the full notes on all the classes can be found at MMO Champion [Source]. I have added relevant information to our class notes as well.

Retribution Paladins Patch 4.0.1

Choosing a Spec

At level 10, you will be required to choose a spec. Retribution, Holy, and Protection are your options, and with them come passive abilities specific to the tree you choose. The abilties specific to the Retribution Tree are:

[Hand of Light] – Your autoattacks have a 8% chance to grant Hand of Light, causing your next Holy Power ability to consume no Holy Power and to cast as if 3 Holy Power were consumed. Each point of Mastery increases the chance by an additional 1%.

Holy Power – This is a new resource which works similarly to combo points. Paladins will generally want to build up Holy Power until it shines through with a bright yellow glowing effect. Once Holy Power has been built up, it can be consumed to augment existing abilities. For example, Word of Glory can be used to cast an instant-cast free heal. This gives paladins several options for how to spend their Holy Power, depending on the scenario.

Talent Tree

The Retribution talent tree was overhauled. This build is my current recommendation for Retribution Paladins:

EDIT:Lucent brought up a good point…[Arbiter of Light] or [Judgements of the Pure] at level 80? For the moment I am going with Judgements of the Pure as that will be a constant 9% haste when in combat. This could change with testing, but for now that’s the road I am taking.

Ability Changes

Some of our abilities were changed. It just so happens that the changes happened to the largest parts of our DPS arsenal.

[Avenging Wrath] use is no longer restricted by Divine Shield, Divine Protection, or Hand of Protection, or of using Lay on Hands on oneself.

[Seal of Vengeance] is now [Seal of Truth], now deals [ ( 12.5% of AP + 12.5% of Spell Power ) ], up from [ 13% of AP + 6.5% of Spell Power]. Now deals 16% weapon damage when stacked 5 times, down from 33% weapon damage.

[Blessing of Might] now also restores mana every 5 sec (Blessing of Wisdom effect). Now automatically affects party or raid members.

[Judgement] is now the same spell for all Seals. Unleashes the energy of a Seal to judge an enemy for Holy damage. 5% of base mana, 10 yd range, Instant cast, 8 sec cooldown

[Crusader Strike] is now a baseline skill. Now deals 120% weapon damage, up from 75% weapon damage. Grants a charge of Holy Power. Cost changed to 10% of base mana, down from 5% of base mana. Cooldown increased from 4 sec to 4.5 sec.

[Sanctified Wrath] is now a Tier 4 talent, down from Tier 8. Increases critical strike chance of Hammer of Wrath by 20/40%, down from 25/50%. Reduces the cooldown of Avenging Wrath by 20 secs, down from 30 secs. No longer causes damage to bypass damage reduction effects while under Avenging Wrath. Now allows the use of Hammer of Wrath at all times during Avenging Wrath.

[The Art of War] is now a Tier 3 talent, down from Tier 7. Revamped – Your autoattacks have a 7/14/20% chance to make your next Exorcism instant, free and cause 100% additional damage.

[Judgements of the Wise] is now a Tier 2 and 1 Rank talent, down from Tier 7 and 3 Ranks. Now also causes your auras increase your party and raid’s damage dealt by 3% and your damage by an additional 2%. Replenishment effect now regenerates 1% of the maximum mana per 10 sec, down from 1% per 5 sec. No longer grants you 25% of your base mana.

[Eye for an Eye] is now a Tier 1 talent, down from Tier 4. All magic attacks against you have a 20/40% chance to cause 30% of the damage taken back to the attacker as well.

[Sanctity of Battle] is now a 1 Rank talent, down from 3 Ranks. Revamped – Haste effects lower the cooldown of your Crusader Strike.

[Crusade] is now a Tier 1 talent, down from Tier 4. Revamped – Increases the damage of your Crusader Strike, Hammer of the Righteous and Templar’s Verdict by 10/20/30% and the damage and healing of your Holy Shock by 10/20/30%.

[Seal of Command] is now a Tier 4 talent, up from Tier 3. No longer an active seal. Revamped – Your Seal of Righteousness, Seal of Truth and Seal of Justice now also deal 7% weapon damage each time you swing. In addition, your Seal of Righteousness now hits up to 2 additional targets.

[Pursuit of Justice] is now a Tier 2 talent, down from Tier 3. No longer reduces the duration of Disarm effects. Now has a 50/100% chance to grant a charge of Holy Power when struck by a Stun, Fear or Immobilize effect.

Changes Post 4.0.1

There will continue to be changes after Patch 4.0.1 is released, and you can find those changes here:(Wowhead has not updated the spells as of 10/17/10, so when you hover over the abilities, the info isn’t current. The changes I listed are.)

[Hammer of Wrath] base damage has been increased by 300%. [1253 to 1385] to [4890 to 5404]

[Exorcism] now scales from 15% of Spell Power or AP, down from 22,5%. Base damage increased by 30%.

Retribution Paladin Glyphs

Here are the top 3 glyphs for each Ret Paladin glyph category. These are what I will be using for DPS and raiding until Cataclysm launches. These may change, but at the current time seem to be the best options: (Edited 10/14/10)

Comments

So my server just went down and I will NOT be able to sleep tonight, Hahaha. Im so torn on this situation. Im a little upset because I was just starting to become a great Ret Pally and a number one pick for all raids in my guild. (And the fact that I was only 2 emblems of Frost away from my 4 piece T10 gear set.) And now just when I thought I had this Ret Pally crap all figured out its back to the drawing board. But good can come from this for me, for I have been reading up on all the changes and I am a man that likes new challanges and change. The one thing I am really intrested in is what our rotation will end up looking like. But that is something we will just have to figure out come Noon today and over the next few days. So on that note, good bye to the WotLK age and hello Cata! Good luck to all my fellow Ret brothers and sisters later on today and try your best to not get to frustrated and upset. Remeber, we got Khor and his great site he has made to help lead us on the new journey! Oh yeah… Also don’t forget the most important thing when the anger and frustration starts to hit… THIS IS JUST A GAME!

I’m in agreement with Akiliez, i just hope they havn’t destroyed what little bit of pvp we were able to do. i’m loving the new burst damage, i just can’t help but feel that we’re going to have the same problems as death knights, and start to get rolled by every combat rogue that crosses our path. and i know how futile it is for a death knight to fight a combat rogue. my alt is combat.

Holy Power is to Paladins, what Runic Energy is to Death Knights. It is an energy source, generated by various attacks (primarily Crusader Strike), which is then consumed by other attacks and abilities (example: Templar’s Verdict) to enhance the effectiveness of said attacks and abilities. Timing the use of attacks that consume Holy Power is going to become the main skill needed for optimal DPS after this patch. Granted Holy Power only stacks to 3 charges and is (apparently)fairly easy to generate.

Great site & thanks so much for the info. I’m too very curious about possible rotation & best ret spec. I’m about 5900gs with good dps, 2of5 tier 10 gear & alot of higher level armor. When will the T11 armor sets be out & should we wait on doing too much more to what we have until 12/7 is here?

Stop stressing about the new raid tiers, they won’t be coming out before the Cata raids do, so that means the absolute earliest anybody’s going to get them (in theory, of course), will be when Cata gets released in December.

In the mean time, T10 is going to be easier to get then ever, so focus on filling that out in the coming weeks. The better your gear is before the Cata bomb drops, the easier questing and instancing is going to be.

Excellent site and collection of inforamtion as always. Whats the consensus on a 4.0.1 build between Arbiter of the Light and Judgements of the Pure in the holy tree? The 7/2/32 build is only applicable at 85 leaving us stuck at 2/2/32(possibly 3/2/31) until we can start leveling again. Thank you and keep up the great work!

@ Lucent – Great point and I fixed my information to include the Holy Tree toss-up. For the moment I am choosing Judgements of the Pure for the constant 6% haste in combat.

@ Rousel – I am still working on rotations. I have a good idea of what it is going to look like, but I need to compare it with the information that pops up on Elitist Jerks, in addition to trying some small adjusmtents out on the live servers. I’ll defintiely let you guys know as soon as I have the info up!

Khor, that’s what I was thinking as well but the burst is hard to pass up and I wasn’t sure. Each option looks like it has situational benefits given the fight durations… but luckily not for long:) Will also most likely pull 1 utility point from the Ret tree for the 9% haste for now. (3/2/31) Thanks again for the great site!

Something I noticed on PTR, it was difficult to tell when Hand of Light had proced. The blizz “power auras” does show this, so I think I’ll be looking at the real Power Auras to try to fix this. Anyone have any ideas or an addon they’ve used on PTR for this?

@Ariebl – You might want to reconsider skipping Repentance and instead start practicing with it during your current Heroic runs. Crowd Control is apparently making a comeback in Cataclysm, and it would be to everyone’s advantage if Pallies knew how to use our single CC option. Just a thought!

Crit is not as good as haste point for point in the first place, and it’s 9% to everything stacking multiplicatively vs 6% crit on two abilities. Crit is also greatly devauled at level 80, as we will arguably never have this much again.

Glyph of Judgement is less DPS than 10 expertise before cap (and less than the reforge into Haste if you are over cap.

For me the prime glyphs should be, http://cata.wowhead.com/item=45743, http://cata.wowhead.com/item=41098, http://cata.wowhead.com/item=43869 I don’t see the glyph of exo being a prime glyph cause you only exo when art of war is up cause the cast time is crazy long from being on the ptr and testing out several different builds I like the glyph of C strike cause its our main ability now and the payoff was better then the glyph of judgement cause for me judgements weren’t hitting as hard as they were on live.

I only used consecration as a filler as the mana cost is huge and it takes some time to get our mana back now. As many have said before the main rotation is cs cs cs tv and fillers between cs use holy wrath and exo when art of war is up.

Im sure today will be a very long day with reforging and dps test to see what works best. Dont forget to update your addons.

As i keep looking around the web and it all the info is just from ptr or cata, So my question is.

How are you going to be gemming for 4.0.x?

Been thinking long and hard about this, for if the forging does come out. what way would be a good way to come about this?

For me im cap’d all the way around in hit and exp.
thinking about str & haste gems in if im right yellow for socket bonus to help get my GCD of CS to 3 sec’s and/or going to use haste for forging gear?

Would like some feedback before realms come up.. all in all i bought a crap ton gems and such to help all 3 specs.

Im sure str, haste will be the go to gem for yellows and always str in red for me on live i was over 40 % self buffed and over 50% crit in ICC 25 but on the ptr i was just under 30 % crit so my guess is crit wont be as important stat for us as haste will until we hit the cap for cs gcd. If you over cap on hit and exp it would be wise to reforge for haste or mastery.

On the ptr I had mastery around 11% and it was amazing how much it was up during a 5 min dps test. I couldnt regem on the prt so ill try that today when were live again.

man…im so discouraged. I read and studied and experimented to get my DPS on my ret pally just right. Key binds, hot keys, addons. Now i dont even UNDERSTAND anything about the talent tree. I might as well stop playing. It’s almost like practicing baseball, getting good, getting very good, going to a game and it’s a flippin FOOTBALL GAME!. So sad.

Would the 12% stack on TV x 3hps (225%), would the 12% over the 10 secs make up for the lost TV (sacrficed 3hp for selfless heal)?
OMG, thats a tight fit even with haste buffs..would need a great macro to shave off secs.

NOTE: I sacrificed 1 point for “act of sacrfice” and put it in selfless healer. The 2nd point came from holy/prot points so lose dps overtime at level 80. Ideally I would add the 2nd point at level 81/82 but Im just dreaming dps here:)

I have myself a ret paladin, I have icc gear n all this, but the truth is that ret pallys got nerfed to the bones, my 6-7k dps now went down to 4-5k dps, wile shamans n warlock are pulling some crazy things like 12k dps, thx to blizzard for getting the ret paladins worthless like crap, lets all do shamans n be op together….

Heya all, been doin a load of research on this for a few weeks now, couple of points,

@Gusto: the dps buff from selfless healer is only to make helping out on the healing not as trajic a DPS loss, but it is still a loss no matter how you look at it.

@aaron: just a personal thing, but i would put exo above judgement and have holy wrath straight after it, as they both now hit alot harder than judgment, so something like

3hp verdict > CS > Hammer > Exo > Holy wrath > judge > consec

@Aiden: all agility pices are pretty useless for us now, and the 5% bonus to strenght from wearing all plate is a massive boost.

@Fernando: Reforging is a bit of a situational affair, Mastery is a stunning dps increase for us, but haste combined with it increases it even more, then you have to think about HP generation with Haste lowering the CD on Cstrike, play about reforging a few bits with mastery and haste, and see what works best for you.

and as a general poin, DONT skip repentance, if you have a half competent group that wont break it, its a very usefull CC.

I’ve never really had issues in PVP with my pally. I’m interested to see if controlling the ability to do some extra burst DPS will help finish off classes that have been tricky for me in the past.I.E. Druid heals, locks, and good frost mages. It seems though that some of the flexibility of specing within the pally tree has been removed, but some more attention and skill in palying them will be involved(no more just FCFS). Thoughts?

Well talk about a nerf if ive ever seen one.. I went from doing 7-8k dps to doin 4-6k dps overnight! i like the set up, just dont like the loss of dmg we used to put out. Lucky for me i have 4 lev 80′s and only 2 of them took a hit. Hunters are in the same boat IMO. My ele shammy is pulling 2k more dps easy, thank god blizzed didnt take everything away from me! i found the best rotation for ret so far is
Judge-CS up to 3 holy points then TV, excorcism when it procs. conc up if u can afford the mana. i did a lil math on recount last night, only divine storm if u have 3 targets or more and only if u have 3 holy power pts stacked, and use zealotry and wings togeather. i hope i heleped out. i ran a few instances to test out the new system, most dps single target i did was 5.5kdps w/ 3.2k wow-hero gear score

Ok, before these new changes, in a 5 man group, I was almost always number 2 for DPS, sometimes #1. And only 4th if I was with people with much, much higher gear score. Now, after running six 5 man PUG’s I can’t get off the forth spot. This is what I am seeing. By the time I see Hammer of Wrath flash, the mob is dead, often, by the time I see my three holy power glowing the mobs are dead, leaving me to see it disappear as we run to the next group. So some of the highest DPS I can put out is not getting used. Anyone else seeing something similar? I also don’t like that I have to wait for Divine Storm to get some holy power before I can use it, and when waiting for those 3 holy power charges to get that 150% weapon damage, only to see most of the mobs already dead, which is killing my DPS output. Everything works better in the boss battles, as they don’t die the second they are attacked, but I can’t raise up the DPS charts at that point.

One sad note on all of this, I had the 4 T9 Turalyon’s armor and 1 T10 (Lightsworn shoulderplates) before the patch, and last night after the patch and before entering the first PUG, I got the Lightsworn Gauntlets, so I now had the 2 T10 gear, and I gemmed everything, (love that the Libram now has a red socket too), and my DPS now sucks!
So better gear and a drop in DPS, that is not right.

Blizz is preparing us for level 85. You can only cling to the hope that these abilities will be much stronger at 85 with buffs and gear. Strength is going to become very, very strong for us in Cataclysm, possibly passing hit in priority.

Our DPS has taken a hit, and a noticeable one at that. I need to get into ICC or VoA 25 and test my numbers on long, single target fights with raid buffs.

I have great gear and I couldn’t crack 4k DPS in a 5-man. Maybe when I get used to the playstyle…but it is noticeably different.

Well to just add my 2 cents. I ran voa10 last night pulled 5.8k dps lol.. I used to pull 9k
easy.. I had a 5.2gs lock beating me on the charts.. im over 6k.. awesome! Well being frustrated I started to mess around with gear alot and dropped as much crit as I could while keeping everything still capped .. noticed about a 1k increase but its still pretty terrible.. they say just wait till cata.. well guess what.. cata is still 2 months away.. time to go play the Druid.. fml

Confirmed. Ran several 5 man heroics last night. Barely cracked 2k dps at first. Got somewhat more used to the rotation and holy power and increased to about 2.4k dps. Was used to doing 3.5k consistently in 5 mans and 6.2k in full raid buffs.

Grrrr… I love Blizz.. Was talking to guildies today and one of them saw world logs of ‘Locks doing 40k on Marrowgar last night… Meanwhile my 4pc Sanctified Pally went from 9k in ToC 10m to 4.5k…I am a litle perturbed by the serious nerf of my Main..

Ok, so I was killing some time and went into Blackrock Spire to try and get the Leeeeeeeeeeeeeroy! Achievement (Kill 50 rookery whelps within 15 seconds). I had tried a few times before, solo of course and haven’t gotten it, and was trying again. Not once before did I ever come close to being killed in there. So I get as many of the Whelps on me as I could and then I dropped Consecration and then Holy Wrath, and guess what. They killed me, yes I died and I am wearing much much better gear. I couldn’t get enough bust DPS and I died in a mob that I had handled with ease before. I am at a loss for words, and truthfully don’t know what to think.
Right now, Ret is wrecked.

My main disappointment is that Blizz was certainly told throughout beta how badly these [many] nerfs combined has made our pallys non-starters for ICC, and particularly LK. Blizz having been told this by the most credible players in the game and doing it nonetheless is really disappointing. So much for ever getting KS, thank you Blizz. btw, just waiting for Cata is only the first step… gotta get to 85 to make it right, thanks again.